Dear Aylee,
We're sure that once you saw this letter, you got more than a little freaked out. What we're asking is that you take the time to read, and consider, our collective opinions, rather than simply exiting out of it. This isn't an attack, it's concerned observations from a group of people you've known for a long time and who love and like you.
Now, the reason for this letter is to clearly state our worries and concerns to you in regards to the growing and the metaplot. All we want is a good answer, not you running away or offering flimsy excuses for not ansering. We all know that you're one of the sweetest people on Gaia (look at how long things went with Mikini before you banned her) and we all know how you hate confrontation.
However, there are a large amount of us that feel like you're being taken advantage of. There's no nice way to say it, but it's true. We feel like you're letting Chibi and Noya take control of the shop, and we are unhappy about that. We completely understand why you would need to have people to help. Running a shop is hard work. But you've let them take it over almost completely.
We simply do not see why we can not have certain sins grow when they have been active, and other sins who have not been active are growing before them. Case in point? Akilah. Noya has not posted in her journal since April of last year. So even if she has been RPing her, and not just hanging out on CoH, they shouldn't be counted yet. She has not been active on Gaia at all, and yet both Tayrn and Akilah will grow before anyone else. Same with Chibi, but to a lesser extent. She, at least, is active on Gaia and Rping. But still: from what we understand, she will get Bjofr grown before she does anything with her, because it's important to this metaplot we've been hearing about.
That is not fair. Going through the current teens, ones that have been more active and have been teens longer are being told that they must wait. Mignon has been a teen since February of 2006. Lyrus has been a teen since March of 2006. Sjajan has been a teen since March of 07. All three of these sins, as you should know, have been incredibly active and dedicated in their duties, and to have them shafted in favor of a metaplot that's sounding more and more like a Kilah wankfest is completely and utterly beyond unfair.
One of our main concerns, however, is that when we try to speak up and explain our side, we're told that it won't be discussed without someone else present, or that it's fair. We just obviously don't see their side of it. Indu wasn't given her ability for a quest because she was speaking up about it. Chibi said she wasn't going to give it to her, and didn't until several days later. You guys have never even done that to Arc, and we all complain and b***h about him. That is wrong.
All we want is answers, and we keep getting yelled at or punished because we ask questions and try to get involved like active, caring members should try to do when things seem to be going sour. It's unfair that you expect us to be happy little worker bees, going along and rping our teens for years just because other people have not been active, simply because they are staff. It feels like we're being punished for simply expressing concerns.
Now, another little thing to note about Noya and her abuse of her position. In the sin chat of Sunday, March 9th, Noya made several comments that some of us other members find very disconcerting. She was referring to another shop she 'works' in that
"basically control when she grows and not the shop I don't even have to RP her to grow her. If I wanted I could be like--BEAT GROW ONOWAY. And then send it to them. And she would grow." Does that not seem like artist abuse to you? it does to me. She then went on to tell you
"If we're not doing that metaplot I need you to redraw Taryn Aylee." No please, no request if you could do it in your spare time, no anything. Just 'AYLEE. REDO TARYN.' This worries us. She is treating you like her personal art slave who bows to her beck and call. Worse yet, you seem to be complying with this.
Now, we do not want to start a fight. We do not want you to drop everything, run, hide, and/or start a fight with the staff. We simply want you to remember that YOU control YOUR own shop and that you should not let yourself be bullied about in this manner. It's wrong of Noya to take advantage of you for this. However, it is also wrong for you to LET her treat you in the manner in which she does. We only ask for fairness. Why is it becoming so hard to get?
We'd like to present you with some numbers we spent hours compiling. None of this was altered in an effort to make anyone look particularly good or bad, and if you take the time to check yourself, you will find the same things we have. Using the guild ALONE [Not including event threads in guild], not AIM RPs or Journal RPs [of which we all have many], here is a basic, yet extremely telling rundown of various activity.
Number of RPs in Guild, total [Least-Most]:
Lorelei: 7
Yukito: 21
Maelon: 21
Lyrus: 23
Ancelin: 28
Akilah: 30
Mignon: 31
Sjajan: 67
Lorelei, the least active has only JUST reached Teen. Kilah's numbers are all in the first 3 pages of the guild, really. Sjajan has at least twice the number of RPs as anyone else. Now, Akilah and Maelon seem to be on par with the others here, and in actuality, Maelon mostly is. However, to delve deeper, we decided to check on the DATES of these RPs. A lot of the older sin'aeis were active at YOUNGER ages, and inactive after hitting teen.
Dates of Last Post by Sin'aeis in their Last 5 RPs: [Least Overall Recent-Most]
Akilah: 3/9/2008, 9/28/2007, 4/13/2007, 3/30/2007, 11/20/2005
Lorelei: 3/9/2008, 3/2/2008, 1/26/2008, 12/24/2007, 4/4/2007
Yukito: 1/25/2008, 1/14/2008, 12/31/2007, 10/15/2007, 9/7/2007
Ancelin: 2/20/2008, 1/26/2008, 12/28/2007, 9/9/2007, 9/7/2007
Lyrus: 3/11/2008, 3/11/2008 2/15/2008, 2/15/2008, 1/10/2008,
Sjajan: 3/11/2008, 2/19/2008, 2/19/2008, 2/18/2008, 1/29/2008
Maelon: 3/9/2008, 3/1/2008, 2/18/2008,2/15/2008, 2/11/2008
Flitch: 3/11/2008, 3/10/2008, 2/17/2008, 2/10/2008, 2/10/2008
Mignon: 3/10/2008, 3/7/2008, 3/7/2008, 2/24/2008, 2/16/2008
As you can see, Akilah, whom it was proposed should grow first, has only done four RPs in this past year. 5 in the past three. Whereas Mignon, the most recently active, has 5 in less than a month. Now, let's take a look at how long they've been teenagers!
Dates of Growth [Most Recent-Least]:
Flitch: February 2008
Lorelei: January 2008
Maelon: September 2007
Ancelin: April 2007
Sjajan: March 2007
Yukito: September 2006
Lyrus: March 2006
Mignon: February 2006
Akilah: January 2006
Now, we wouldn't even consider growing Flitch and Lorelei! Why Maelon? All the other teens are almost a year+.
Finally, we offer to you a growth list for the teens that could feasibly grow. This list is taking into account factors of activity both recent and overall, age of sin'aeis, length in current stage... Basically, everything EXCEPT who's a staff member and who isn't. We all agreed on this list and it's one that would be the most fair to all in the shop.
Teen-Youth Growth List [First-Last]:
1. Mignon: Not only is she the most recently active sin'aeis, she's also been in this stage extremely long. Mignon needs to grow.
2. Sjajan: Arguably the most roleplayed of the sin'aeis, she's also the only teen that hasn't had a massive hiatus and has been recently active.
3. Lyrus: Very old, but not quite as active as Sjajan or Mignon.
4. Ancelin: Recently active and overall active.
5. Yukito: Very old, consistantly active.
6. Maelon: Recently active and by the time it's his turn to grow, he will have been a teenager long enough.
7. Akilah: The only reason being she's extremely old. She hasn't been an active Sin'aeis since before she hit teen. Hopefully, by the time it's her turn, she will have become active once more and earned the growth.
8. Unknown for now.
Aylee... We love you. We love the shop, we love your concept. Why else would so many people spend so many years and so much effort creating and moulding our sin characters? What we want, simply now, is for you to be in complete and total control of YOUR shop. There's no reason in the world why you shouldn't be. You're smart, you're sweet, you're intelligent. Taking the next step, and regaining control of your shop is only a plus on your personality and the future of the Sin thread. We
know it's a great shop... it's one of the longest running with so many of it's original owners still active. Please... please please please please don't let it fall into despair by letting unqualified and selfish people make decisions. On that note, don't even let us make decisions... we're not trying to replace Chibi or Noya, rather making suggestions for what we, as a whole, feel would make a great thread epic.
Don't EVER take orders... only suggestions.
You're the only member of the staff to be sent this pm, Aylee. We do not mind Chibi or Noya reading this letter because we are not on the attack, nor are we trying to start staff fights. We leave it up to you to choose whether or not they get to see it. Your perogative.
Anvion
Indubitably
Jeanemon
Keppit
Moofuls
Wotcher
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